This article is from the K9 Magazine archives, subscribe to our newsletter & get our best dog news, tips and articles ---->BBC documentary series Panorama has revealed a shocking degree of bad practice within certain vet clinics in the UK.
An undercover reporter for the Panorama expose – entitled ‘It Shouldn’t Happen at a Vets’ worked as a trainee at one of the UK’s largest veterinary chains (Medivet), for a period of 9 months. What that reporter uncovered will shock pet owners who placed their trust in the veterinary professionals to care for and treat their animals honestly and with integrity.
Alex Lee, the Panorama undercover reporter, exposed evidence of highly dubious billing practices and unqualified staff performing medical procedures on pets.
Lee explains:
“I came to the job with neither qualifications nor experience and had not been on any recognised training course.
This assignment came about after a former employee of Medivet approached us to talk about her concerns that untrained staff were being tasked with medical procedures.
After being hired, I did complete three weeks of in-house training at a Medivet branch.
From that I had assumed that my duties would be limited to cleaning, grooming and feeding the animals in my care.
In practice, I was quickly tasked with giving injections and a range of other roles that are widely considered to be medical procedures, as were my fellow “trainees”.
On one occasion, I was asked to insert a catheter – a rod inserted into a vein to allow medication or fluids to be quickly administered – into an Irish Setter named Yogi.
The dog was to undergo an operation on his throat to deal with breathing problems.
The colleague charged with teaching me how to do this was a fellow trainee nurse who had worked for Medivet just a few months longer than I had and who was not enrolled on a formal training course.
Secret filming of Yogi
Undercover footage of Yogi being restrained by the neckThe dog was scared and put up a struggle as the trainee tried to restrain him as well as tell me what I needed to do.
More hands came in to help, restraining Yogi with an arm around his neck while he was pinned against the wall. This, in a dog with breathing problems.
Pet owners have long been questioning the authenticity of some vet’s invoicing policies.
K9 Media Ltd has published an annual report entitled ‘The K9 Magazine Vet Satisfaction Survey’.
In it, we have – for the past decade – shown a growing concern amongst pet owners about the seemingly arbitrary pricing policies of certain vets in various areas of the UK.
The Panorama revelations will surely cause grave concerns to those pet owners who’s trust in the veterinary profession has started to wane.
This is a real shame.
If pet owners begin to second guess their vet’s recommendations on treatment or mistrust their motives or, dare I say, competence – if handing on highly skilled work to untrained staff, this would be a disaster.
Vets are a small business. Fact. They are, generally, a for profit enterprise. The large majority of the public has absolutely no objection to vets making a profit. Problems unfold when profits are put ahead of performance or medical necessity.
British vets are some of the best in the world. We should be very, very grateful to have such a depth of skilled professionals to care for our pets. But British pet owners deserve more transparency and clarity on issues such as care and pricing.
Panorama’s undercover reporter:
In one particularly upsetting incident during my time at Medivet, I witnessed a Shar-pei dog named Stanley being struck on the head just hours after he had undergone major surgery to amputate a leg.
I was asked, along with a kennel assistant, to remove Stanley’s catheter that had been placed for surgery. When the dog began to struggle and howl in distress, a nurse responded by hitting the dog hard over the head and wrestling him into an even tighter grip.
The nurse involved later apologised to us for his actions and Medivet said it was an isolated incident that it did not condone. The nurse has since been promoted to head nurse at a different Medivet branch.
One in four British people own a pet. As there is no such things as an NHS for pets, pet owners place their trust in the hands of private businesses. As there has been, at least over the past 10 years, an increasingly vociferous concern amongst pet owners toward the veterinary profession, this documentary is sure to fan the flames of suspicion.
A Panorama Special: It Shouldn’t Happen at a Vets’, broadcast on BBC One, Thursday, 22 July at 2100BST.
What do you think about veterinary treatment, pricing and professionalism in your area? Have your say below:
Highly Recommended: As summer approaches, your dog will thank you for – clicking this link…!
Related posts:
- British Veterinary Association Responds to Panorama Undercover Reporter
- Veterinary Association Responds to BBC Panorama Vet Expose
- Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons Concerned About Panorama Vet Documentary
- TV Vet Appeals For Animal Help in South Africa
- Tonight With Trevor McDonald: Are Pet Owners Being Ripped Off by Their Vets?
July 22, 2010 at 9:58 pm
I am truly DISGUSTED at what Panorama revealed tonight,
in fact disgust doesnt quite cover it! in describing what these awful people have done?
I am in SHOCK.
These prople are supposed to be animal lovers!!??
How DARE THEY? I can tell you this, if my animals were ever treated in medivets care, i would personally go down and give them all a taste of their own medicine
I would love to think that these people will be SACKED and never allowed to go near animals again!
but we all know that wont happen…
like we all know that this will continue…
This is the way of the world today and their isnt much we can do about it.
FUMING.
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Terri Wylie Reply:
July 22nd, 2010 at 10:18 pm
I cant believe what i saw!
Am so angry, and actually scared to think of what goes on now!
I like my veta lot and trust them, but after seeing this it does worry me that the people may not be as caring as they seem to my face.
Those poor animals and owners too!
These people are just disgusting and cruel!
A lot of vets are only in it for the cash it seems these days and dont care about the animals at all!
Peoples pets are part of the family, mine are my furry kids and if anyone ever treated them that way i wouldnt be responable for my actions.
Makes me sick!!!!
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claire Reply:
July 23rd, 2010 at 10:23 am
i trained for 6 years, accumulated 30,000 of student debt, work 60-70 hours a week and earn £8 an hour after tax.if you don’t own the practice you have no interest in charging excessively as there is nothing in it for you. that applies to 90% of vets out there who are simply employees and dont have a financial interest in the business. yesterday i asked my employer to discount a bill £20 as it had come to more than i had expected and had estimated to the owner and he did that happily. we also operate a charity scheme that enables owners on benefits to obtain free veterinary treatment when many have made absolutely no provision for their animal’s care. there are huge differences in the charges area to area and practice to practice and that is a problem that the profession is well aware of and trying to deal with.
there are certainly bad apples out there but i have never witnessed cruelty or indifference in any practice i have worked. yes, we restrain animals forcibly for procedures if they struggle as you cannot tell them to ‘please hold still’ but it is a brief period of stress to achieve what needs to be done and only certain animals need to be held that way. we all have animals, we have all worked with animals for years in a non veterinary capacity to get in to vet school and we devote hours of our spare time to reading and professional development to stay in touch with new developments. the programme managed to turn a few isolated incidents in hundreds of hours of filming into a sensationalist programme. i suspect if you dug into any profession you would find people who weren’t behaving as would be expected.
i hope people don’t extrapolate wildly from this programme as we all love our own pets and do our best to offer a good service in a very busy and quite stressful working environment.
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Frogdogz Reply:
July 23rd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
I agree that the majority of the vets I have known and dealt with have been caring, skilled professionals. I have great admiration for veterinarians – they train as long as medical doctors, go into just as much debt, and can never come close to earning as much money.
That said, there are a few horribly bad examples out there who tarnish the reputations of everyone else. If anything, it’s the ethical veterinarians who should be more appalled by this behaviour than anyone, since they are the ones who suffer damage to their reputations by proxy.
I just had two encounters with horribly bad veterinary care myself, but while I don’t believe that this means *all* vets are bad, neither do I excuse their behaviour because most vets are good.
I have been rather disappointed during our complaints to the Ontario disciplinary board about how unwilling some vets were to put their personal opinions of our case into writing. There has been a sort of circling of the wagons to protect a fellow vet that I am finding baffling to understand.
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Terri Wylie Reply:
July 23rd, 2010 at 4:29 pm
Of course not ALL vets are this awful,My vet is great! and yes you obviously have to restrain them but this wasnt just restraining was it?
He wacked the dog over the head!
So there is really no defending that kind of abuse!
They were calling the animals names and taking the mickey out of them.
No repsect for the pets or the owners at all!
I would never set foot in a Medivet clinic in a million years and i hope they have lost a ton of business due to this programme.
They were also worse than useless in my book.
I think this waa good for us pet owners to see.
I dont really care how isolated the incidents were either, they should not have happened at all!
I have came across money hungry and uncaring vets in the past so yes they do exist.
They have no business being allowed anywhere near animals.
They are not animal lovers, just seeing ££££
A good vet cares for the animals as if they were their own, and no amount of stress should cause this kind of treatment.
If they find it too stressful to cope with a distressed pet, then they are in the wrong job.
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July 22, 2010 at 10:53 pm
I am a vet and big animal lover; I have to admit that I am glad somebody revealed what is often going on behind closed door. Sometimes it made me sick after I seen what some nurses and vets can do to an animal; some of those people have NO feelings and they shouldn’t be doing this job.They like it because of the reputation and maybe money at times. I am happy that lots of people watched it tonight…
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July 23, 2010 at 12:15 am
I found this very upsetting, if my animal was treated like this I would hurt the person responsible. They would be very sorry. These b@stards were lucky they didn’t hurt the wrong persons pet, that is all I can say. Deeply upsetting to think animal lovers can be so cruel.
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July 23, 2010 at 12:23 am
i think whilst what has been aired this evening is a disgrace it is important to remember that the large majority of vets and nurses carry out there job to the best of their abilitys and treating our patients as if they were our own i have been a qualifed nurse for many many years now and take great pride in animals in my care being well cared for to a high clinical standard but also being comforted by the presence of the staff who genuinley do care , the issues aired on panorama tonight are from a small minority of people and not the proffession as a whole
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July 23, 2010 at 1:03 am
I am very concerned over the vet who was struck off. Having lost a dog to bone cancer and having spent the last 2 years helping a support group for those who are going through the nightmare of being told their beloved dogs have bone cancer. The first thing we say is don’t listen to any vets vets that say ” the cancer will already be in it’s lungs, don’t waste your time and money, your dog is going to die ” which I believe the other vet said and is to common to hear. We suggest people go to an oncologist who may very well suggest an MRI to get a better idea of what treatments could be suggested.
So although £2000 for an MRI was a bit steep I don’t believe the original vets advice was purely for financial gain and there is no way he should have been struck off. it would have been better to refer the dogs owner to an oncologist but at least he didn’t just write the dog off. We have many dogs on our forum that have beaten the stats of survival of bone cancer and some are even here 4/5 years later having been told originally they only have a few weeks.
This programme proves it is a minefield for vets and I would hate any vet to think it safer to go the easy route and do nothing in case worst case scenario they get struck off.
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Michele Reply:
July 23rd, 2010 at 12:06 pm
I would have struck him off regardless of the MRI issue. His treatment of animals is highly indicative of his inability to care. There were many issues of this vet’s unprofessional practice. Leaving nurses to intubate animals and without proper supervision. One has to ask how many animals died unnecessarily under his supposed care!
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July 23, 2010 at 9:44 am
I watched the opening 30 secs, this gave me sufficient clues as to the content we were in store for, I would love to know whether this case has been put to the appropriate authorities and dealt with in a fitting manner, anyone know if prosecutions are in the offing?
@Pippa – totally agree…These b@stards were lucky they didn’t hurt the wrong persons pet!!!!!!!!!!
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July 23, 2010 at 11:31 am
When my vet closed his surgery over Christmas my dog was referred to a Medivet hospital. They gave me a estimated bill BEFORE examining my dog, refused me access to my dog as promised on admission, on calling to ask of her progress they insisted in updating me of the current status of the bill before updating me on her condition, told me different versions of her progress – often within the same phone call, lied about drugs side effects (I have a degree in pharmacology), charged £150 to insert a cannulae (working in healthcare I know how much a Venflon costs!).
Unhappy with the treatment I called to tell them that I was withdrawing her from their care the next morning and my bill went up by almost £1000 overnight!!
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July 23, 2010 at 2:27 pm
Whilst I was saddened at some of the treatment of the animals and of coursel disagree with some of the billing practices demonstrated isn’t it a bit naive to think that this doesn’t happen? I’m sure when vetenary practices become “corporate” this is more likely to happen? As an owner of 2 Labrador dogs do what I do. – take your beloved pets to a friendly open local vet. One where you are free to see the treatment given to question and discuss recomendations. Just as in any service you are buying talk to those concerned and if you are not convinced, walk away. I would recommend my vet to anyone and have the confidence to stand by that recommendation but he wasn’t the first vet I looked at. He is a credit to his profession and despite what we saw on last nights programme I am convinced he is a true representation of the majority of the industry.
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July 23, 2010 at 3:48 pm
This was a very disturbing report. After seeing this programme we are so very grateful we have super caring vets here in Bournemouth
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July 23, 2010 at 7:42 pm
The Panorama programme was depressingly predictable as far as we are concerned. Rights 4 Pets @ Vets is an all-volunteer campaign group dedicated to campaigning for tougher regulation of the veterinary profession. You can find us on Facebook to under ‘Justice 4 Ted’. If you are concerned about any of the issues raised in the programme, then we urge you get in touch with us via the website or Facebook.
We believe that the increased commercialisation of the profession over the past few years had a corrosive effect on public confidence. The Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966 does not afford the RCVS sufficient power to discipline veterinary surgeons or nurses other than in instances where they are found guilty of gross professional misconduct. The RCVS currently have no power to even consider cases involving clinical negligence which means that owners whose pets have suffered at the hands of an incompetent vet have no means of recourse. This is plainly wrong. If you care about how you animals are treated by veterinary surgeons, then please get in touch with our campaign.
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July 24, 2010 at 8:04 am
I have been working as a vet for 22years and I own my practice. I was so upset with the sight of those ‘trainees’ trying to insert a catheter that I had to leave the room. It must have been terrible for his owners to watch. I would like to say that I do not think this is normal practice in a veterinary surgery. I have never seen a distressed dog handled in this way and I have never seen a pet struck. I have also never seen a bill artificially raised. I use a large amount of profits to buy equipment (which is extremely expensive) and currently earn less than any doctor, dentist, lawyer or IT professional. I am sure that many pet owners will now have difficulty trusting their vets which is a huge shame.
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August 3, 2010 at 6:19 pm
my dog was on dis program lol i got him like a month after thy recorded it
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